One of our AAOs Com Jitender
Prasad, posted in PAO, Patent and Trade Marks, Mumbai is in greet financial distress. On
the allegation of his involvement in financial irregularities occurred in the
PAO, he was implicated in the case and currently he
is under suspension. He is lodged in Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai for more
than one year. He has been denied bail by the trial court inspite of the best
efforts. Since individual is a victim of the circumstance, the matter
was discussed by Com. Ajay K Patole, Vice President, AICAEA and V.
Bhattacharjee, Secretary General with CGA also during all India Conferences in
Chennai held in July 2015. But the response of CGA was of no significance.

As Com Jitender Prasad is having liability and
facing lots of financial difficulties in maintaining the family and also
dealing the legal matters, the members of Mumbai Branches had extended him
financial support so far.

Next date of hearing of his case is 5th
July2016. He has incurred expenditure of Rs 350000/- during the last one year.
With no body to support in Mumbai and a family to look after in Bihar, he finds
it difficult to manage. He wishes to file an appeal in Mumbai High Court for
bail. Cost of filing an appeal in High Court is more than 2 lakhs. He is the
only earning member in family and is lodged in jail. You can imagine the
tremendous situation he is undergoing.

In order to give him support to file
the appeal in High Courtnow, the Mumbai Branches have requested all to extend their
supporting hand to Com. Jitender Prasad so that he and his family can be helped
financially. Responding to the request of the Branches of
Mumbai, the Extended Federal Executive meeting of the National
Federation of Civil Accounts Associations held on 10th &11th
June, 2016 hasappealed upon all
Civil Account employees of the country to extend their helping hand to Com.
Jitender Prasad. Accordingly, I request you to kindly contribute generously and
help the members in distress. I hope no civil Accounts Employee shall refuse to
contribute for such a noble cause.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the implementation of the recommendations of 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) on pay and pensionary benefits. It will come into effect from 01.01.2016.

In the past, the employees had to wait for 19 months for the implementation of the Commission’s recommendations at the time of 5th CPC, and for 32 months at the time of implementation of 6th CPC. However, this time, 7th CPC recommendations are being implemented within 6 months from the due date.

The Cabinet has also decided that arrears of pay and pensionary benefits will be paid during the current financial year (2016-17) itself, unlike in the past when parts of arrears were paid in the next financial year.

The recommendations will benefit over 1 crore employees. This includes over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners, of which 14 lakh employees and 18 lakh pensioners are from the defence forces.

Highlights:

1.The present system of Pay Bands and Grade Pay has been dispensed with and a new Pay Matrix as recommended by the Commission has been approved. The status of the employee, hitherto determined by grade pay, will now be determined by the level in the Pay Matrix. Separate Pay Matrices have been drawn up for Civilians, Defence Personnel and for Military Nursing Service. The principle and rationale behind these matrices are the same.

2.All existing levels have been subsumed in the new structure; no new levels have been introduced nor has any level been dispensed with. Index of Rationalisation has been approved for arriving at minimum pay in each Level of the Pay Matrix depending upon the increasing role, responsibility and accountability at each step in the hierarchy.

3.The minimum pay has been increased from Rs. 7000 to 18000 p.m. Starting salary of a newly recruited employee at lowest level will now be Rs. 18000 whereas for a freshly recruited Class I officer, it will be Rs. 56100. This reflects a compression ratio of 1:3.12 signifying that pay of a Class I officer on direct recruitment will be three times the pay of an entrant at lowest level.

4.For the purpose of revision of pay and pension, a fitment factor of 2.57 will be applied across all Levels in the Pay Matrices.

5.Rate of increment has been retained at 3 %. This will benefit the employees in future on account of higher basic pay as the annual increments that they earn in future will be 2.57 times than at present.

6.The Cabinet approved further improvements in the Defence Pay Matrix by enhancing Index of Rationalisation for Level 13A (Brigadier) and providing for additional stages in Level 12A (Lieutenant Colonel), 13 (Colonel) and 13A (Brigadier) in order to bring parity with Combined Armed Police Forces (CAPF) counterparts at the maximum of the respective Levels.

·A common regime for payment of Ex-gratia lump sum compensation for civil and defence forces personnel payable to Next of Kin with the existing rates enhanced from Rs. 10-20 lakh to 25-45 lakh for different categories.

·Terminal gratuity equivalent of 10.5 months of reckonable emoluments for Short Service Commissioned Officers who will be allowed to exit Armed Forces any time between 7 and 10 years of service.

·Hospital Leave, Special Disability Leave and Sick Leave subsumed into a composite new Leave named ‘Work Related Illness and Injury Leave’ (WRIIL). Full pay and allowances will be granted to all employees during the entire period of hospitalization on account of WRIIL.

8.The Cabinet also approved the recommendation of the Commission to enhance the ceiling of House Building Advance from Rs. 7.50 lakh to 25 lakh. In order to ensure that no hardship is caused to employees, four interest free advances namely Advances for Medical Treatment, TA on tour/transfer, TA for family of deceased employees and LTC have been retained. All other interest free advances have been abolished.

9.The Cabinet also decided not to accept the steep hike in monthly contribution towards Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme (CGEGIS) recommended by the Commission. The existing rates of monthly contribution will continue. This will increase the take home salary of employees at lower levels by Rs. 1470. However, considering the need for social security of employees, the Cabinet has asked Ministry of Finance to work out a customized group insurance scheme for Central Government Employees with low premium and high risk cover.

10.The general recommendations of the Commission on pension and related benefits have been approved by the Cabinet. Both the options recommended by the Commission as regards pension revision have been accepted subject to feasibility of their implementation. Revision of pension using the second option based on fitment factor of 2.57 shall be implemented immediately. A Committee is being constituted to address the implementation issues anticipated in the first formulation. The first formulation may be made applicable if its implementation is found feasible after examination by proposed Committee which is to submit its Report within 4 months.

11.The Commission examined a total of 196 existing Allowances and, by way of rationalization, recommended abolition of 51 Allowances and subsuming of 37 Allowances. Given the significant changes in the existing provisions for Allowances which may have wide ranging implications, the Cabinet decided to constitute a Committee headed by Finance Secretary for further examination of the recommendations of 7th CPC on Allowances. The Committee will complete its work in a time bound manner and submit its reports within a period of 4 months. Till a final decision, all existing Allowances will continue to be paid at the existing rates.

12.The Cabinet also decided to constitute two separate Committees (i) to suggest measures for streamlining the implementation of National Pension System (NPS) and (ii) to look into anomalies likely to arise out of implementation of the Commission’s Report.

13.Apart from the pay, pension and other recommendations approved by the Cabinet, it was decided that the concerned Ministries may examine the issues that are administrative in nature, individual post/ cadre specific and issues in which the Commission has not been able to arrive at a consensus.

14.As estimated by the 7th CPC, the additional financial impact on account of implementation of all its recommendations in 2016-17 will be Rs. 1,02,100 crore. There will be an additional implication of Rs. 12,133 crore on account of payments of arrears of pay and pension for two months of 2015-16.

Organize Dharna in front of the
CBEC Units of respective stations on 30th June 2016

The administration of the
Pr. CCA, CBEC, New Delhi have now come out with their true colours. Instead of
taking initiatives to resolve the problems they have created in PAO, Central
Excise, Madurai by honoring the assurances offered by them to the representatives
of the Unit and Branches of Tamilnadu through local administrations
respectively, they with their revengeful attitude have now started
harassing the employees in the form of issuing of show cause
memos, deducting salary and threatening the employees individually. They are also provoking the local administrations to
become aggressive towards the employees and harass them so that the existing
cordial relation between different categories of employees and officers and
their Associations get strained and they start fighting against each other. The local
administration of PAO, CBEC, Maduari has already been provoked and it has
started threatening and abusing the employees instead of creating a
congenial atmosphere.

What is the fact?

PAO/CBEC/Madurai was created in October
1976 with the strength of 22 Accountants. When Trichy CBEC Unit was formed in
1984 some posts were shifted to Trichy and then again in 1985, some Accountant
posts were downgraded to accommodate DEO Posts. At present that Office is
functioning with 8 posts only (7 Sr. Accountant and 1 Accountant) which is less
than the sanctioned posts for the Office.

The PAO/CBEC/Tirunelveli was created in
2004 with sanctioned strength of 4 Sr. Accountants. The posts were filled in
initially with willing transferees from other PAOs and on deputation basis. But
at present only 2 Sr. Accountants are working in that Office.

The
issue of Transfer of Sr. Accountants from PAO/CBEC/Madurai to PAO/ CBEC/
Tirunelveli has to be viewed under the above mentioned circumstances. The
PAO/CBEC/Madurai unit rightly opposed such transfer move. Immediately after
learning that two Sr. Accountants are under order of transfer to another
station, they have strongly protested against such action and staged Walk Out at the very moment itself.
Not only that, daily they are conducting GB Meetings to review the situation.
Finally they went to PEN DOWN STRIKE
from 7th June 2016 due to total arrogant attitude of the Dy.CA
Chennai and Administration of Pr. CCA, CBEC who treat the group B & C
employees as their slaves. Unit decided to continue their protest until the
issue is resolved.

It is not the simple question of filling up
vacancies through redeployment of excess staff from PAO, CBEC, Madurai to PAO,
CBEC, Tirunelvelie. Rather, it is an attempt to disturb the Association and curb
the strength of the Unit Association by removing
some of the members from the office vindictively. It shall be amply clear from
the following -

One of the
individuals came on deputation from Delhi Administration was absorbed as
Accountant in PAO, CBEC,
Madurai during October 2013.
For his absorption the PAO had extreme interest and done a very hard labour.
But subsequently by creating psychological pressure on the official he ensured
that the individual does not become the member the association. Therefore, the
most pertinent question is when in October 2013 there was a need for a
hand in the Office why suddenly in 2016, 2 members have been found out
surplus by the local administration? As such, it is very clear that vested
interest was there behind the absorption of the deputationist concerned and that
is why he left our association also.

These apart, the PAO
CBEC Tirunelveli had been forced to start the work on PFMS. Obviously, for
that the PAO was asking for more hands to handle the work. In that situation, a
man who is well versed with PFMS work should have been allotted to the Tirunelveli
instead of two members PAO, CBEC,
Madurai who are not working in PFMS.
Moreover one of them is physically handicapped and the other person has gone to
Madurai on his own request from Chennai on account of family problems. So,
these facts prove that the administration of CBEC,in violation of the policies of Department of
Personnel and Training and the directives of Central Vigilance Commission
circulated by the CGA through OM dated 15-12-201, had vindictively
transferred two of our members at the instance of the local administration of
Madurai which has undoubtedly got some vested interest in retaining the person
who is the junior most employee and a non member to the Association.

In
protest against this, Unit had finally and rightly resorted to pen down strike for
eight consecutive days.

Apart from the actions at the Unit level, the Tamilnadu Branches also intervened and
requested the Dy. CA, CBEC, Chennai. Committee members of AICAEA and
AICAEACAT II, Tamilnadu and Pondicherry Branch had met the Dy. CA, CBEC,
Chennai and requested him vide letter dated 20-05-2016 that the transfer of
persons being totally against the interest of the office and employees as there
are vacancies in the PAO, Central Excise, Madurai itself, the transfer the
officials from the office may be avoided by filling up of posts in the other
station through direct recruitments etc. But the Dy.CA ignored the request of
the branches and recommended for transfer of two members and the Pr. CCA CCA,
CBEC vide an order dated 1st June 2016 had ordered for transfer of
two employees vindictively to PAO, Central Excise Tirunelveli form Madurai.

As
such, the Branches of Tamilnadu and Pondicherry had also resorted to
demonstrative actions in front of the office of the Dy. CA.CBEC, Chennai.

Midst
all these, when Secretary General met CCA, CBEC and pointed out the lapses in the
orders, he accepted the mistakes and revoked the orders partially
through withdrawal of orders of only one of the employees who is physically
handicapped. But no action to put the entire situation in order has been taken
by the administration.

Following
the decisions of the extended Federal Executive meeting of NFCAA on 10th
and 11th June 2016, protest demonstrations had started in Chennai,
Kolkata, Hyderabad, Cochin and many other places. Observing that the protest is
becoming more militant and spreading throughout the country, the PAO, CBEC,
Madurai and Dy.CA, CBEC, Chennai negotiated with the Unit and Branch
respectively on 14th June 2016 and assured that recommendations for
reversal of transfer orders of the member concerned and no disciplinary action
against agitation shall be made to the higher authority. After this
development, Secretary General discussed with the CCA, CBEC who expressed that
the action shall rely on the recommendations of lower authorities. In view of
this the Unit took the decision of suspending the pen down strike temporarily
and resume normal functioning of the office. But the authorities, instead of
honoring their commitments have taken the reverse direction.

What actions need to be done?

The Tamilnadu Branches
in the mean time have decided to organize statewide protest against such
atrocities of the authorities of CBEC. The Branches have resorted to Black
Badge wearing on 24th June; holding signature campaign on 27th and 28th June
and shall stage a day long Dharna jointly on 30th June in front of the office
of Dy. CBEC, Chennai.

The Federation
hqrs has already sought intervention of Govt. of India including CGA on Jaipur
and Madurai matters. But the authorities have not responded at all.

Comrades, the
attacks on Madurai and Jaipur Units are the indications of the attitude of the
present Civil Accounts authorities. The Civil Accounts authorities of Ministry
of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Ministry of HRD have also adopted various
anti-employee approaches. In this condition, if we do not stand unitedly and
resist the authorities as one, the attack shall be shaper and wide
spread.

In view of these situations we have decided in
consultation with the leaders of different Branches that the Branches shall organize
Dharna in front of the CBEC Units of respective stations on 30th June 2016 and
hand over a resolution to the local authority with endorsement of its copies to
all concerned.

AICAEA
CAT II Letter to CGA for Grant of the Benefit of ACP/MACP TO AAOS at par with
the AAOs of C&AG

All
India Civil Accounts Employees Association Category-II

CENTRAL HEADQUARTERS, KOCHI – 682 018.

Mob. No. 09446047688,
e-mail:-aicaeacat2hq@gmail.com

Address
for Communication:

Office of the ZAO, CBDT,

3rd Floor, Sanjuan Towers,

Old Railway Station Road, Kochi – 18

No. AICAEA CAT-II/CHQ/2016/44 Dated: 27.06.2016

To

Shri M.J.Joseph

Controller General of Accounts,

Ministry of Finance

Department of Expenditure

Lok Nayak Bhawan 7th Floor ‘C’ wing

Khan Market,

New Delhi - 110 003

Subject: -
Treatment of the appointment of departmental SAS passed persons to the post of
Assistant Accounts/Audit Officer for the purpose of benefits under MACP/ACP
Scheme-Regarding.

Sir,

I am directed
to bring to your kind information that an order issued by the office of the Comptroller
and Auditor General of India, vide Circular
No. 23 Staff Wing/2016, No.39-Staff/Entt 1/184-2014 dated20th June
2016, in the matter of treating SAS passed candidates to the post of
AAOs as direct recruitment for the purpose of ACP/MACP Scheme.

The AAO working in the Civil Accounts
Organization are also similarly placed and they are also entitled for the same
benefit.

Therefore, on behalf of this Association,
I request you to kindly issue similar order at the earliest, so that the
benefit of ACP/MACP Scheme, may be extended to AAOs of the Civil Accounts Organization.

A copy of the aforementioned order
issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India is enclosed herewith for
your kind perusal.